Method
1. Wash and soak the bengal gram in water for atleast half an hour. It is better if you are able to soak for an hour or 2.
2. Drain the water completely. Take the soaked dal, garlic, ginger, dry red chillies, curry leaves, salt and fennel seeds in a blender/ mixie.
3. Pulse it a few times till the mixture is partially ground. We need some texture in the batter. Do not add any water. The dal must have absorbed enough water for grinding.
4. Heat oil for deep frying in a frying pan/ kadai.
5. Mix the chopped onions (if needed) with the vada batter.
6. Take a small ball of the batter and flatten it between your palm.
7. Drop the flattened vada into the hot oil and fry till it becomes golden brown.

Serving Suggestions

- Serve these vadas with a hot cup of ginger cardamom tea for a satisfying snack on a cold or rainy evening.

- You can also serve it as a sidedish with rice and some curry, pongal, idli etc.

Tips
- If you prefer crispier vadas, make small sized vadas and fry for a little longer.
- Some people add 1 or 2 spoons of green peas along with channa dal while soaking.
- You can also add some veggies to the vada batter. Some of the common veggie vadais are spinach vada, corn vada, cabbage vada, beetroot vada,carrot vada and mixed vegetable vadai.

for making rasam /sambar vadai more tastier, one uncle told me to follow this step.
Prepare rasam and keep it ready. make medu vadas and immediately after removing it from the frying pan, we must put in rasam/sambar. this tastes too good than the one we put it in sambar/rasan when the vadas becomes cold.

my neighbour aunty used to give me this whenever there is a function in her house. it is too yummy. i love this. but i have to control myself as the fried items are banned for myself and my hubby. but chori chori chupke chupke once in a month a piece of fried item goes inside the tummy. but we are health conscious.